--- title: "In the olden days": Grandad's 1990 — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «"In the olden days": Grandad's 1990», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: "Back in the day" and "in my day" mean "when I was young", so the day changes with whoever says it. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / "In the olden days": Grandad's 1990 # "In the olden days": Grandad's 1990 Lesson 126 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/126-in-the-olden-days/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/1/) — "Back in the day" and "in my day" mean "when I was young", so the day changes with whoever says it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/2/) — Many everyday things are new. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/3/) — The World Wide Web went public in 1991, YouTube started in 2005, and smartphones became common after 2007. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/4/) — When Grandad was 10, in 1980, ordinary families had no internet at all; in the 1990s it came down the phone line through a screeching dial-up modem, and nobody could use the house phone while you were online. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/5/) — Every time had its own exciting tech. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/6/) — The Game Boy of 1989 had a small greenish screen and kids loved it as much as kids love new consoles now; music came on cassette tapes, and people wound the tape back with a pencil to save the batteries. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/7/) — Old things also look old because they have aged: photos on film fade and go orange. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/8/) — Prices rise over the years, which is called inflation, so a 10p bag of sweets now costs £1, but people's pay was lower back then too. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/9/) — Family dates often line up with history: Ukraine became independent on 24 August 1991, and a grandad who watched the Moon landing on TV at 7, in 1969, was born in about 1962. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/10/) — 1990 was 36 years before 2026; the Middle Ages, in Europe roughly the years 500 to 1500, ended about 500 years ago. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/11/) — The Game Boy came out in 1989, 37 years before 2026. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/12/) — In the 1990s home internet used the phone line through a dial-up modem, which could take about 30 seconds to connect with beeps and screeches and was far too slow for watching films. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/13/) — The World Wide Web went public in 1991, YouTube started in 2005 and smartphones became common after 2007. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/14/) — Ukraine declared independence on 24 August 1991, 35 years before 2026. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/15/) — Prices rising over the years is called inflation; £1 is 100p, which is 10 times 10p. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/16/) — Old photos were taken on film, and their colours fade over time, often going orange or yellow. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/17/) — Someone born in 1989 was born in the 1900s, the 20th century. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/18/) — The first Moon landing was on 20 July 1969; someone who was 7 then was born in about 1962 and is about 64 in 2026. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/19/) — Cassettes were tapes for music, common from the 1970s to the 1990s. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/20/) — "Back in the day" and "in my day" mean "in the past, when I was young". - ← previous: [BC and AD, dinosaurs and pyramids, and timelines](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/) - next →: [Sleep and the body clock](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/127-sleep-and-the-body-clock/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)